Tomorrow Californians will decide whether to keep the current ghastly governor
or replace him with someone else. Republican conservatives will largely determine
whether or not that new governor is Arnold Schwarzenegger or Cruz Bustamante.

Many conservative Republicans remember the problems that liberal Republicans
have cost our party. Republicans like Lowell Weicker, John Lindsey and Jim
Jeffords have positioned themselves to snipe at the Republican Party and
cause it grief.

Might Arnold be like that? Two recent gubernatorial elections should give
comfort to Republicans worried that Arnold may be a Trojan House. In 2001,
when conservative Republican Bret Schundler won the Republican nomination
for Governor of New Jersey governor, he had a legitimate claim upon the loyalty
of New Jersey Republicans. Schundler had supported Christine Todd Whitman,
despite ideological differences.

Republican Party liberals, however, turned their backs on Schundler because
he was "too conservative." November 2001 became a Republican rout,
with the party not only losing the governorship but also the state legislature.

This betrayal of Schundler had a ripple effect. When Robert Torrecelli,
a Democrat senator covered in ethical muck, was re-nominated by the Democrats,
abandoned was forced out by New Jersey Democrat bosses, despite being the
legitimate nominee of the party, the weakened Republican Party in New Jersey
was helpless.

One year later, California Republican voters chose another conservative
Republican to defeat the corrupt Gray Davis, whose sleaziness was comparable
to Robert Torrecelli in New Jersey. California Democrats, like New Jersey
Democrats the year before, did not care that their candidate had huge ethical
problems, as long as he could win.

The reaction of liberal Republicans in New Jersey and in California were
completely different. Sal Russo advised me soon after my article of March
11, 2002 entitled "The Importance
of Bill Simon and George Bush" appeared
in Enter Stage Right, that Richard Riordan had already been over to the Simon
campaign to offer help. Rudy Giuliani, one of the most liberal Republicans
in America, came to California and campaigned tirelessly to elect Bill Simon.

Bill Simon did not lose to Gray Davis because liberal Republicans abandoned
him, who supported him as an honest and decent man, despite policy and ideological
differences with him. Now Arnold Schwarzenegger, who does not pretend to
the conservative that Simon was, is trying to remove, for the good of California
and America, Gray Davis.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger waves to supporters
from his campaign bus during the first stop on the 'California Comeback
Express' bus tour in San Diego, California on October 2

Schwarzenegger, like Simon, is an honest and decent man. Should conservative
Republicans support him, just as Rudy Giuliani supported Bill Simon? Liberal
Republicans in California, in stark contrast to liberal Republicans in New
Jersey, have been loyal to their party. If Arnold can claim to be the legitimate
nominee of the Republican Party, then conservatives should support him. No
liberal Republican ran a third party candidacy in 2002 to siphon votes away
from Simon, which is effectively what Tom McClintock is doing today.

Is Arnold the "legitimate nominee"? If there had been a Republican
primary, then the issue would be moot - Republicans would have chosen by
a majority vote the nominee, either in the primary or in the runoff primary.
The mechanics of the recall election, however, do not allow for a runoff
of the top two candidates, but there are four good reasons to say that Arnold
is as close to being the "legitimate nominee" of the Republican
Party as this recall process allows.

The California Republican Party Executive Committee - hardly a hotbed of
liberalism - has taken the unprecedented step of endorsing Schwarzenegger
in the recall election. This decision appears to have represented the overwhelming
consensus of California Republican leaders.

The last time rank and file California Republicans actually voted for a
candidate for governor, they chose Bill Simon, an excellent man and a fine
conservative. Bill Simon has endorsed Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Darrell Issa is more responsible than anyone else for Gray Davis facing
recall. Representative Issa put his own money into the recall campaign. If
any Republican could claim to have a right to be the legitimate Republican
candidate, it is Darrell Issa. Who does Issa support? Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Public opinion polls do not just show that Arnold is carrying a strong plurality
in the second stage of the recall election, but the same polls show that
Arnold is receiving a strong majority of the Republican vote. If it was possible
to hold a Republican primary today, Schwarzenegger would win that primary
handily.

The endorsement of Simon and of Issa, the majority support that Arnold receives
both from the Republican Party leadership and the rank and file Republicans,
make him the legitimate candidate in this race of the Republican Party.

Because Arnold is the Republican candidate, Tom McClintock should respect
the position taking by the greatest conservative Republican - the greatest
California Republican - in our nation's history. In 1966, when Ronald Reagan
was running for governor, he pronounced an Eleventh Commandant: "Thou
shalt not speak ill of fellow Republican."

Tom McClintock, a good, decent, bright, and principled man should respect
the counsel of the greatest Republican Governor that California has ever
produced, probably the greatest conservative America has ever produced. Tom
should have given this up for the Gipper.

Bruce Walker is a senior writer with Enter Stage Right. He is also a frequent
contributor to The Pragmatist and The Common Conservative.